Beyond Happily Ever After
by See No Dum-Dums
Summary: STILL ONESHOT. What if Aeris survived and actually got a happily ever after with Cloud? What lies beyond? Migraine? Stupid customers? Firecasting kids? Bickerings? Old age? What? [Cloris oneshot] ...sorry, I still subscribe to AeriS. heheheh...
1. Beyond Happily Ever After

I do not own Final Fantasy 7… but I'm trying to bargain for Aeris. Come on, Squaresoft (as it was back then) killed her, so maybe they'd want to give her to me.

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What if, just what if…?

Sephiroth failed to kill Aeris; Cloud was able to parry Masamune and beat the murderous git away from the forgotten capital. But Cloud suddenly went crazy and handed over the Black Materia to Sephiroth. He drowned into the Lifestream, got his sanity back (thanks, Tifa), battled serious WEAPON butt (thanks, Aeris – your Great Gospel made his life a whole lot easier), saw the shiny Mako cannon, witnessed Shinra collapse (presumably), met the One-Winged Angel in battle at the Northern Crater – and won (no duh), saw Holy devour Meteor, cured Geostigma, shooed away the Remnants and broke their little Reunion, managed to buy that casa in Costa del Sol, then... everyone lived happily ever after?

Hmmm…

**7:10 AM**

Tropical sunlight diffused throughout the bedroom, highlighting two framed photographs standing on the bedside table. One was a picture of what seemed to be a group of misfits (who, oddly enough, turned out to be the perfect Planet-saving dream team); the other showed a happy family of a blonde male, a brunette female, and three healthy little kids.

She was already awake, actually. (Thank goodness for biological alarm clocks!) One of her shining bright green eyes was scanning the pictures. Wow. It seemed that all those adventures were but a while ago.

Ring! Ring!

_Hmmm?_

She perused her lips. Who on the Planet would be calling so early in the morning? Maybe _Someone's_ idea of a crank call… That little girl never changed. Oh well…

She slowly sat up – her head would hurt were she to jerk up immediately; she wasn't as young as she used to be, after all.

Ring! Ring!

_Okay! Okay! I'm coming! Geez…_

She probably moved so abruptly, for one of the small kids beside her (he had auburn hair and – though not evident right now – sapphire eyes) twitched and muttered, "Mommy…"

Ring! Ring! Ring!

She pulled her long brown tresses back and tied her hair into a neat ponytail, revealing the fine contours of her face. Somehow, she still looked young, albeit a little stressed. Maybe it's because of the bloody phone…

Ring! RIIIING!!!

"Strife residence. Who's there?" she asked, trying to sound as terse and as annoyed as her naturally sweet voice allowed. (And that was hard work, since she had just woken up.)

"HI! AERIS! WHAT'S UP! THIS IS YUFFIE! HOW ARE Y'ALL DOING?!"

Just as she thought.

"Hi Yuffie."

No, she wasn't angry. Of course not.

"Erm… bad time?" The person on the other line hesitated.

Okay… maybe she had good intentions.

_Give her the benefit of the doubt…_

"Not really."

"Um… good! 'Cause I thought you sounded terse and annoyed. Nyuk nyuk nyuk…"

"Nah…" Aeris yawned. "Just tired, I guess. Been working all day, all night."

"GAWD! That sucks! And I once thought gardening was fun."

Aeris giggled. "No, you didn't. _You_ said it was boring work. _I_ said it was fun."

"Oh yeah…"

There was a pause before Yuffie continued:

"It's been a while, huh?"

**8:37 AM**

"And remember: _behave._"

She put emphasis on the magic word; the little boy really neeeeeded to, after all.

"Yes… Mother."

"Cloud?!"

"What?" Cloud shrugged. "Well, you _are _a mom, right?"

"But I'm not _your_ mom," Aeris replied, brushing off all dirt from his navy blue SOLDIER suit.

"Yeah. You're just my cook, my instant dresser, my babysitter, my savior…"

He was talking too much. She kissed him in the lips.

"And your wife," she concluded for him. "But technically, I can still boss you around. So _behave_. When they say 'deliver it pronto,' you deliver it pronto."

"Hey, I resent that," Cloud retorted. She was ranting about that fiasco for the eighty-seventh time. (It wasn't _that _bad; Shinra Inc. – oh, Shinra's no longer using Mako: the WEAPON seemed to have knocked some sense into Rufus' head – would only have to cut the Gold Saucer's electricity supply for a week.) "I was only delayed, you know."

"Yes. By three TV shows on end. Now go along and have fun," she said as she bade him goodbye.

Cloud rode his chopper (yes, chopper: he loved bikes more, but a chopper's just more practical for delivering goods to Junon) and flew away, but not before blowing his dearest a kiss.

But Aeris stopped smiling and sighed.

**10:51 AM**

"You're going to work _again_, Ma?" The brown-haired boy named Zack frowned.

"Yes, dear. I have to. You know that, right?" Aeris told the little one as she kissed him and pinched his rosy cheeks.

"Awwch! … Ma?!"

"But I told Mr. Cuddles we'd be playing today," cried Clarisse, her daughter (and Zack's twin).

"I'm sorry, sweetie. Just tell him we'd be having fun some other time, okay?"

(Too bad Reeve's idea of presenting Clarisse with a Caith Sith unit wasn't cheering her enough.)

"Ma," Reno (_Of all names, Cloud, why Reno?!) _tugged at her long pink skirt, pouting. "I want some more cookies."

"You forgot the magic word," she quipped.

"Erm… Fire?"

Within seconds Aeris' next batch of daisies were reduced to ashes.

_Why on earth did _he _have to be the one to inherit my Cetra skills?!_

"Nice one, wise guy. It was _please_. Revive. Regen."

And the daisies were suddenly brought back to life, as pretty as ever.

"Okay. Please?"

"You'll have some more when Aunt Tifa arrives. And those are very yummy cookies, too."

Reno looked like he was about to throw a tantrum --- but the memories of his mother summoning Choco/Mog to chastise him were still fresh.

"Fine."

"Oh, look! There's your Uncle Cid!" she tried to exclaim brightly as a giant white airship landed from a distance. And, surely enough, Cloud and Aeris' house was filled with visitors within minutes.

"Take care of the kids, okay, Teef?" Aeris implored her best friend. (Tifa was also sporting a ponytail to complement her black suit – _do all thirty-somethings have to don ponytails?_)

"Sure. Why not?" Tifa replied, smiling brightly, winking playfully.

_Good thing Marlene's already grown up and tending to Seventh Heaven._

"Thanks."

"Owwwwch!" groaned Cid, who was trying to carry Aeris' "merchandise" (which meant plants sprouting on heavy pots) all the way into the Highwind. "#$+ lumbago! I hate bein' 45!"

**4:43 PM**

"As I've said, sir, orchids are all sold out."

Aeris was trying – and, somehow, failing – to remain patient.

"And no! We can't do landscaping right now! All my people are already busy!"

Talk about low IQ levels…

"SON OF A &$#!!! HAVEN'T I TOLD YOU THAT WE'RE ALL WAY OVER OUR HANDS AND HEADS?!?! ARE YOU BEING TOO STUBBORN, OR ARE YOU JUST PLAIN DUMB?!?!?!?!"

Ah… finally. He put the phone down.

Freaking customer.

Now, she was starting to talk with the same rhetorical flourish as Cid's.

WTF?!

**9:24 PM**

"Cloud?"

Her husband stopped massaging her cranium, the better to listen to her.

"Yes, dear?"

Aeris twisted her body uncomfortably on the couch. She was going to ask one nasty question, alright.

"Never thought how things would have been otherwise?"

"Eh?" Cloud sat on the armrest and looked down on her beautiful but uneasy face.

_Oh, don't tell me you've gone retarded too, like that customer_.

"I meant: you – no – think – if – all – things – went – not – same? But really, If you need to hear this message in Wutaian, I'd call Yuffie in to translate."

Cloud chuckled darkly. Hyperactive ninjas beat around the bush – for days – before getting to the point. "I got you the first time around, you know. I just wanted to know why you asked that."

"I dunno. 'Cause our lives are so… _normal_?"

Cloud's eyebrows shot up. "And that is wrong… why?"

"Because it's boring. For a bunch of heroes, we've ended up living monotonous, soulless existences."

"So that's why you looked so pissed today!"

"Well…" Aeris fidgeted with her white hands before saying, "Yes."

"Hmmm…"

"So, perhaps our lives (and, strangely enough, I'm referring to us as if we're some novella characters) would have been prettier, more vibrant, if things got a little more, um… tragic? You know… since… people are kinda obsessed with death, right? After all, death _does_ immortalize someone, making him/her an ideal figure etched into the mind… So what if someone among us had died?

"What if… _I_ had died?"

Cloud's eyebrows seemed to disappear – they had shot up so high.

"That's not funny, Mrs. Aeris G. Strife."

"Hmmm… I guess."

_Man, what has gotten into me?!_

"And for that," Cloud concluded, a shadow of a smile playing on his lips, "you'll have to make it up _real_ bad to me."

Cloud lifted his wife and began to carry her all the way into the master's bedroom.

"Geez, Aeris… You _do_ have to lose some weight. All that dilly-dallying…"


	2. Just a postscript

Yes. This story is still a oneshot. So don't worry.

If you enjoyed this one-scene story, you might want to check out the whole thing in my other work,_ The Not So Starcrossed Couple_. Weddings, honeymoons, work, kids... Now really. What an entire lifetime could Cloud and Aeris have spent together, no?

And thanks for the reviews!


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